Ukraine’s secretive army intelligence agency HUR on Sunday trolled the Kremlin and potentially dealt the survivability of an entire class of Russia’s most modern nuclear missile submarines a body blow on Sunday by dumping a mass of secret documents and drawings about the warship onto the internet.

The sensitive Russian military information release, now available to anyone with a smart phone and data access, detailed everything from internal construction to critical weak points to the individual names and ranks of every sailor, warrant and officer aboard one of Russia’s prized ballistic missile submarines.

The authoritative Ukrainian military information platform Defense Express in a Monday evaluation of the HUR data release said that most damaging to Russian military capacity was the release of blueprints and diagrams detailing the internal layout of Russia’s latest nuclear missile submarine to the public domain.

“The data… is literally worth its weight in gold,” the Defense Express article said.

Days earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin, on July 24, made a rare personal public appearance to attend a flag-raising ceremony for the vessel at the Sevmash military shipyard on July 24, near the northern port city Arkhangelsk on the White Sea.

Entered into Russian Navy lists in February, the K-555 Prince Dmitry Pozharsky is armed with 16 advanced R-30 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), each designed to carry 6 to 10 separately targetable nuclear warheads.

The Borei-class is the Russia Federation’s massive update of the Soviet-era Delta-class ballistic missile submarines carrying 16 nuclear-capable missiles with less range and accuracy than the modern ICBMs aboard a Borei-class boat. The Russian Navy operates eight Borei-class and five Delta-class missile submarines. Together, the “doomsday” warships are the backbone underwater component of Russia’s nuclear triad, and account for about 30 percent of the Kremlin’s intercontinental-range nuclear deterrence force.

Speaking to Sevmash executives about the Dmitry Pozharsky and the Borei class, Putin said: “This is one of the priority areas – building up the group of strategic submarine forces. And, naturally, the priority here is first of all the construction of strategic missile submarines – one of the most important components of our nuclear triad, which, I repeat, allows Russia to maintain the balance of power in the world.”

The Kremlin intends to launch four more Borei-class submarines, of which two are already under construction.

According to the HUR-released data, the time interval between Pozharsky’s construction completion and its deployment to operational status – a little more than a year – appeared rushed, because the normal work-up period for a nuclear missile submarine usually runs 24 months, or more.

Ukrainian intelligence operatives published to the internet eight pages of information with details about the Dmitry Pozharsky’s weaponry, equipment, sea trials and crew, including an entire crew list by name. The release came 10 days after Putin declared the Pozharsky operational and a critical addition to Russian naval strength.

Many items made public by the Ukrainians and claimed by HUR to be authentic seemed to be pieces of larger confidential Russian Navy documents or databases. The HUR release did not say how Ukrainian intelligence obtained the information.

Kyiv Post was unable to confirm conclusively the HUR claim that the Dmitry Pozharsky data dump was authentic. A Kyiv Post review of materials released by HUR found the information contained and formats used appeared consistent with modern Russian naval practice.

A detailed Table of Contents published by HUR implied Ukrainian operatives had gained access to practically all operational rules and standard operating procedures (SOP) used aboard the Dmitry Pozharsky, including combat duty stations, daily ship routines, procedures in all alert statuses including combat, locations and capacities of sensors aboard the boat, as well as actions to be taken by each member of the crew in combat and emergencies. Captain (Second Class) Andrei Shpaykher was identified as the endorsing officer and commander.

A diagram published by HUR shows the submarine’s watertight compartments, precise locations of firefighting equipment, locations of equipment controlling water ballast, and communication lines. A separate page – if authentic – lays out the precise location and function of hatches and valves needed to keep the boat watertight while submerged. In the hands of a Russian naval adversary, the information effectively identifying the Borei-class’s weak points might be exploited.

A by-name crew spreadsheet lists 66 men and officers, and a parallel line and block diagram lays out the boat’s chain of command down to individual name. The crew list is headed by Captain Shpaykher and details each sailor’s age, weight, rank, physical fitness test results and medical evaluation for suitability for submarine duty. Another spread sheet gives details on each crew member’s date of rank, time in rating, and military specialty qualification.

A first page of what appears to be a combat actions SOP for all crew members specifies which officers are responsible for maintaining boat sensors and specific tactical situations when the sensor should be used.

The data dump also contains photographs of a launch tube with a damaged internal component, and an initial page of findings by an investigative team looking into operations of on-board sensor equipment. Another page appears to show the signatures of 12 senior Russian submarine technology researchers or engineers, and their names. The findings page is dated Sept. 9, 2024, implying Ukrainian intelligence obtained access to the document sometime after that.

On Sunday, maritime warfare writer Collin Koh on X said of the secret submarine data breach: “Borei-A class SSBN, representing the pinnacle of Russia’s arguably most secure nuclear second strike capability, now compromised by a country Moscow derided as one without a navy to speak of.”

Aside from small riverine and coastal patrol craft, Ukraine operates no warships. The best-known Ukrainian naval victory to date took place in April 2022, when Ukrainian shore batteries hit and sank the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF), the cruiser Mosvka. Since then, Ukrainian forces using drones, domestically developed and imported missiles have destroyed about one-third of the BSF by vessel count and about one-half of the BSF by tonnage. Currently Russia’s remaining Black Sea warships shelter in the port Novorossiysk and rarely put to sea.